CFA Institute Blogs

Samuel Lum, CFA

Samuel Lum, CFA, is director of Private Wealth and Capital Markets at CFA Institute. He focuses on wealth management and capital markets, mainly in an Asia- Pacific context. Lum's current research and development interests include investment policy, asset allocation, exchange-traded funds and products, indexing methodologies, family office and governance issues, alternative assets, and risk management. He has more than 20 years of professional experience in the investment industry, encompassing investment portfolio management at Hutchison Whampoa, a global conglomerate based in Hong Kong; wealth management in the trust division of the TD Bank Financial Group, covering the Asian markets; investment portfolio management, fund and treasury management, corporate finance, and capital markets research at the treasury division of the Ontario Hydro Corporation; and securities brokerage in an online financial services joint venture of subsidiaries of Credit Suisse and Hutchison Whampoa. Lum holds the CAIA, FRM, and TEP professional designations. He also holds an MBA degree.
Topical Expertise:Portfolio Management · Private Wealth Management

With around 10,000 projects now in progress throughout the country, “the urbanization process in China is one that is absolutely unprecedented in human history,” according to Zheng Xiaoping. And, while securitization is an important financing tool for urban development in China, it is also becoming key to China’s fixed-income market. Read more

Joseph P. H. Fan has spent many years studying, researching, and consulting with family-controlled business groups in Asia. In this interview, Fan discusses how an Asian family could best go about doing dynasty planning and set up a family governance and intergenerational transition framework. He also reminds the viewers of the common pitfalls and roadblocks that must be kept in mind while implementing this framework. Read more

Anthony Neoh, SC, former chief advisor to the China Securities Regulatory Commission and ex-chairman of the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission, discusses the progress and prospects of financial sector reforms and capital market liberalizations in China. Read more

The result of this poll suggest that respondents are in general quite optimistic that the newly set up super agency will lead to an even faster pace of financial sector reforms and liberalizations in China. Read more

Traditional corporate reporting has been the subject of much criticism, as it has not really been effectively and efficiently communicating the current conditions, issues, and outlook of a corporation’s business with shareholders, creditors, and other stakeholders. A different approach — integrated reporting — has been designed to fill the gap, and a global movement is underway to make the norm. Read more

As the liberalization of the domestic equity market in China accelerates, MSCI and FTSE are preparing for the entry of China A-shares into their flagship global indexes. The resulting liquidity inflow is estimated to reach US$180 billion as the $4 trillion A-shares market will command significant weightings in the indexes. International investors will need to start thinking about the asset allocation and transitional issues, while assessing how much value A-shares would actually add, and how the concerns and risks can be managed. Read more

Joe Zhang, chairman of Wansui Micro Credit, says there is no problem with shadow banking in China; microcredit actually provides an invaluable service to small businesses. The key policy issue is how to make solid progress in liberalizing interest rates and ending financial repression. Read more

China’s liquidity crunch is just a “live stress test” on the financial system, and signals to the commercial banks and shadow finance entities that they must manage their liquidity positions, operations, and lending practices in a more prudent manner, according to Water Cheung, CFA. Read more

The two-day Obama-Xi summit at the Annenberg Retreat in California was an unprecedented event in relations between China and the United States. The focus of the summit, as reported, was on enhancing understanding and not on determining immediate deliverables. The summit concluded last week, so we asked readers this week whether they expect to see major changes in China-US relations going forward. Read more